Thursday, January 31, 2013

In 1995, Ram, a friend of mine, surprised a lot of us by
declaring that he was going into farming – to grow grapes. For a successful
engineer this was an eye popping move. We tried to cajole Ram against it but he
said, “What is life if I don’t take a chance? I’ll never be able to do this
again. I’m young enough to take this risk.” So he put all his life’s savings and bought himself a
parcel of land somewhere near Shamirpet – in the outskirts of Hyderabad. Ram
was a determined man. He spent a lot of time researching farming and its
methods. He set up a small shack for the farm hands to stay and did all that he
needed to do to get a good crop.

When I met him a few years later, I asked him,
“Ram, how are the grapes?” He proudly opened a small box of grapes. I popped
one into my mouth and almost spat it out – it was really sour. Was this all he
had to show after eight years of toil I thought. He smiled in a knowing way. ‘I
just manage to survive by selling a few boxes these to my people who work at
the farm”. I asked ‘Where is your life going? Do you seriously want to pursue
this?” He said he was convinced it was the right thing for him to do. He was
not making money, but he was firm that he would continue farming. It was an
affirmation of his faith in his farm. I asked him to stick to his convictions
and not aver a bit. I felt a bit awkward and left Ram to his farms. Sometimes
in our careers we do something risky born out of our convictions. But was that
the right thing to do?

I recently met Ram and nothing much seemed to have
changed with him or his farm. He seemed ebullient. As usual, he gave me a bunch
of grapes to taste and asked me, “What do you think about these grapes?” This
time I was honest with him and said, “These grapes are sour. How will this ever
sell? How will work for you? “Yes buddy, I know, but they seem to work for me,”
he replied smilingly. It didn’t make any sense to me.

Ram explained, “The grapes haven’t done very well
but the land that grows these grapes seems to have done a lot better.” He had
bought two parcels of land along the highway. The price of land had shot up to
some astronomical levels. He had sold the smaller piece and bought himself a
house and bought more land in some other place. He still retained the bigger
piece of land for growing grapes. He thanked me for giving him the courage to
have faith in his own conviction and said that the land has turned into gold!
He was smiling ear to ear.

I left the farm feeling happy for Ram and was lost
in thought about what courage and conviction can do for life and careers. There
must have been so many trials and tribulations in his life, so many years of
doubting Thomas and a long journey of questions that he had to go through. And
I guess Ram just dug in!

What is life without risk in it? Life is to be
lived a bit on the edge and in doing so; it is convictions that tease out the
results. However unintended, positive consequences play out for the brave.

Ram still believes that one day he will produce
grapes that aren’t sour. I am convinced he will.

About Me

S. V. Nathan is the Chief Talent Officer for Deloitte India, with over 29 years of professional experience in Human Resource management.
Apart from his responsibilities in Deloitte, Nathan serves as a Fellow at Sumedhas, a not-for-profit education and research body on organization development. He is a well-known speaker, teacher, and Behavioral Specialist trained in sensitivity training.
Recently, Nathan was named the HR Role Model of the Year 2011 by Star News. He was also selected as the “HR Person of the Year” by the Asia Pacific Congress for HR in 2008. Nathan served as the President of the Hyderabad chapter of the National Human Resource Development Network (NHRD) until 2011.
He is also an active member of the distinguished WILL Mentoring Council of the "Forum for Women in Leadership" in India.
A man of letters, Nathan has graduated in Mathematics and did his post graduation from XLRI, India’s prestigious Business and Personnel Management Institute.
Nathan is married to Chitra and has two sons, Vivek and Vignesh. He is fond of reading and writing, and enjoys cooking for family and friends.